a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card reader which performs processing on the basis of card information that is recorded on a card-shaped recording medium (hereinafter, referred to as a card shaped medium) such as a credit card. More specifically, the present invention relates to a card reader and an abnormality coping method for a card reader which are provided with a function preventing illegal theft of a card shaped medium.
b) Description of the Related Art
In general, a card reader equipped in an ATM device (automatic teller machine) or a vending machine is a device for executing card transactions in which information recorded in a magnetic recording area of a card shaped medium that is inserted from a card insertion port is performed with reading or writing processing. In the card reader, when the card shaped medium inserted from the card insertion port is detected to be a regular card, a shutter is opened and the card shaped medium is taken into the inside of the shutter. After having been taken into the inside, the shutter is closed. At the time the card shaped medium is taken in, when the shutter is opened, a motor as a drive source is activated and a card feeding system is operated. Then, the card shaped medium is taken on a feeding belt and carried to a magnetic head for executing reading or writing card information while detecting the position with a card detecting sensor to execute card transactions. Normally, a shutter performs the following protection functions. For example, when the card shaped medium is jammed on the way in the feeding path, the shutter closes the card insertion port to prevent a malicious third person from pulling out the jammed card shaped medium for illegal theft (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-222686). Alternatively, the shutter prevents the card feeding system from being damaged by a bar-shaped foreign object of mischief which is inserted from the card insertion port (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 11-39434).
The following structure has been well-known as a conventional card reader provided with a protection function for preventing a card illegal theft. For example, a customer forgets to take out the card which is returned to the card insertion port after a card transaction has been finished and the card is left without taking out. In this case, the next customer cannot execute a card transaction or an illegal person may take out the forgotten card for theft. In order to prevent such difficulties, when the leaving state of a card due to forgetting the card is continued for a specified period of time, the card which is left is collected in a card collection container which is arranged in the card reader device and the shutter is closed after the card which is left is collected and, after that, a waiting state is continued until the next card transaction is executed.
The foreign object inserted from the card insertion port may be a trap which is set to steal a card that is jammed on the way along the feeding path or a card in the card collection container in addition to a bar-shaped object of mischief. For example, a trap is inserted with a card at the time of card insertion by an illegal person pretending card transactions, or alternatively, the closed shutter in the waiting state is forcibly opened to set a trap. When the trap which is set is a hard object, the shutter is supported by the trap and is not completely closed, and thus the occurrence of abnormality is detected. However, when the trap is a soft and thin sheet shaped object, the shutter can be closed through the sheet-shaped trap and thus abnormality in which the trap has been set cannot be detected. As a result, a card shaped medium which is taken into the device for subsequent card transactions or a collected card in the card collection container may be allowed to be stolen with the trap.
In the latter prior art described above, the shutter has continued to be open even though the card shaped medium inserted from the card insertion port is taken into the inside of the device, a control system of the card reader judges that abnormality occurs on the basis of a suspicion that a trap may be set at the time of insertion of the card. Therefore, the control system of the card reader sends a warning notice of the occurrence of abnormality to a host device and waits an instruction from the host device.
However, the conventional card reader described above enters into a waiting state until an instruction is sent from the host device after the occurrence of abnormality caused by the setting of the trap has been notified to the host device and the card reader itself does not cope with the abnormality. As a result, an illegal person can take out the card during the waiting state.